Our very existence as a species depends on the health of our oceans. It is good to see that this realisation is starting to dawn on leaders and policymakers at the highest levels of global society. The United Nations recently convened its first ever Ocean Conference with the aim of supporting the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. This high-level conference was the first step towards a solutions-focused strategy which will engage national government, local government, NGOs and the business sector to work together to reverse the decline of our oceans.

Perhaps the single largest successful outcome of the conference was the consensus achieved that SDG 14, and by extension the health of our oceans, should be a central component of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The outcomes of the conference can be largely grouped into three categories:

an inter-governmentally agreed Call for ActionUN member states reconfirmed their commitment to the implementation of SDG 14

UN members states agreed to mobilise resources for the implementation of SDG 14 in keeping with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development

1,328 commitments towards the implementation of SDG 14 were made by governments and other stakeholders

the commitments include topics such as the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs) action on plastic and other marine debris as well as funding for scientific research and capacity-building activities

key messages from partnership dialogues

participants were able to share knowledge and experience

interlinkages between SDG 14 and the other UN Global Goals was clarified

The momentum has been created and we hope to carry this forward as we meet in Malmö, Sweden from 11-13 October 2017 for our annual conference and AGM. This year we have been invited to join in with the Life Below Water conference, a follow up to the UN Ocean conference in New York. With the high-level groundwork having been laid, this conference will focus on a smaller scale and explore how local government implementation of SDG 14 could look.